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Tuesday, March 11, 2014

5 Weeks to London: Last Week's Training

My last week of 150 miles is in the books, but there are still a few weeks of quality training left to go. I had two solid workouts this week that have given me a lot of confidence less than two weeks after the Gasparilla Half-Marathon. The first came Wednesday in the form of 4 x 2 miles on the track with two minutes rest. It was dumping rain (Portland got over an inch that day) and there was a decent wind, so I was happy to average a bit under my half-marathon personal best for those repeats. I came back with what was, for me, a monster workout on Sunday. It started with a 3 mile warm-up, 4 x 2km repeats on the track, a 10 mile run (56:45), and then another set of 4 x 2km repeats and a short cool down. Every 2km repeat was between 5:52 and 5:53, so not only a good pace for me, but very consistent. The consistent times can look deceiving, as though I was holding back on the second set. I wasn't. After the honestly paced 10 mile run in between, I was really struggling to hold the 70 second quarters for the last two reps. I could not have done another rep at that pace. The last 5 miles of intervals were miles 18 to 23 for me for that day, and they felt like an honest physical depiction of those miles on race day. I can't handle many workouts of this quality through my build up, but 5 weeks out was the right time for this one. I'll start bringing the volume down slightly each week from here on out, but next week will still be close to the 140 mile range.

After that 4 x 2 mile workout on Wednesday, I did begin to feel some lower leg pain in both legs, but especially in my right. I haven't been able to quite shake it yet, so this week I'll be skipping any drills, strides, 200s, etc., until it starts to feel back to normal. If I have to take a day or two off I will, but I'm not at that point. I'm being proactive with ice, ibueprofen, light massage, and compression. I'll be seeing Dr. John Howell down at Portland Integrated Health today to help make sure it disappears in the near future. Hopefully these small adjustments will take care of it, and I can wipe it from my mind in the next couple of days. This is all a part of marathon training, and so far I've been able to adapt and back off enough to not encounter anything debilitating.

We're nearly inside the one month mark to the Virgin Money London Marathon! Big thanks to Starting Line Designs for the cool new artwork for the header. If you'd like, check out the training log for last week below. Thanks again for reading, and follow me here for training updates.

2 comments:

Hi Ryan, I got a few nutrition questions for you. Obviously you have found a balance of calories for yourself to help maintain a lean weight, but how do you manage calorie intake during and between your runs as to not put on weight and no get run down? Have you every experimented with trying different race weights before? It seems for most people if they aren't running they put on weight really quickly..

Hi Apondel, sorry for the delayed response. Because I run such high volume for most of the year, my weight normally takes care of itself. Even though I'm consuming a lot of calories, I do watch my diet. I try to stick with lean meats, lots of veggies, and I mix up my grains and carbs with things like wild rice, quinoa, etc. Obviously I still eat the usual pasta and breads, but I try to keep my diet diverse. I also try to keep my snacks healthy and full of what I need. I like trail mix in between meals. I also spend the last month before a race keeping a closer eye on my diet than I do in the earlier parts of training just to make sure my weight is where it should be. I eat when I'm hungry; I just try to eat good stuff.